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Four-year-old Alfie Toomey is setting the pace in a sports kit appeal for Malawian children. The active schoolboy from Northamptonshire heard that children in Malawi often have no footballs or sports kit from his teacher, Marc Williams, who had volunteered there with Krizevac Project. Alfie leapt in to help and asked all his school friends to join him and collect equipment… and so Alfie’s Africa Challenge was born! The brave little lad stood in the front of a school assembly and explained his challenge to his school mates, many of whom have promised to help.

With a grin this good, who wouldn’t help with Alfie’s Challenge?

Class sizes are huge in St James Primary School. These happy children have just received pencil cases from Krizevac Project.

Alfie’s Mum, Nicola, told us, “Alfie is a loving, friendly, cheeky little boy whose favourite thing to do is playing with his friends. He loves beingactive, enjoys being at the park and climbing trees!” The energetic lad is set to do well and is showing early dedication. His mum explained, “Alfie goes to tennis coaching every Saturday morning and is becoming very good at it! Like his daddy, he supports Liverpool Football club and loves to kick a football around.”

Malawi is known as ‘The Warm Heart of Africa’ and Alfie’s compassionate reaction will be so much appreciated there. This is not his first charitable endeavour and Nicola explained how her son has shown he too has a warm heart: “We were putting together a Christmas box for a charity, when Alfie heard that his school had only received half the amount of boxes that they had hoped for. This upset Alfie as he has the most amazing empathy towards others, so with help, he quickly made another to hand in to school.” Soon after, when Marc heard about how Alfie liked to help others, ‘Alfie’s Challenge’ was born. Alfie’s mum has set up a facebook page to help raise awareness of ‘Alfie’s Challenge’ to family and friends.

Marc Williams getting ready to play in Malawi!

Marc Williams, a qualified teacher, is one of nearly seventy people who have selflessly volunteered their time since the beginning of 2009. Through the inspiration of Marc’s work in St James Primary School in Chilomoni township, Blantyre, the Krizevac Project has begun training 20 extended school workers to support the 23 teachers who grapple daily with the enormous task of teaching 1,800 pupils.

Malawian student, twenty two year old Rudo Mhango, has developed a 3D video game called ‘Project Nyasa’ in his local language, Chichewa. One of over two hundred college students at the John Paul II Leadership and IT Institute, Rudo is achieving world-class software development in the middle of an impoverished African township.

JPII LITI was funded by US cellphone company, Mobal, through Krizevac Project, the unique charity created by its Chairman, Tony Smith. Tony explains, “Technology has the power to change the world for the better! As a landlocked country, Malawi is poorly placed to import or export anything, but with the fast internet connection which we’re providing this college, talented people like Rudo can sell software products and services to the world at the click of a mouse. We’ve made sure the skills and equipment are there to grow a world-class capability.”

Declan Somers, Krizevac Project Country Director, Malawi teaching a class in business management.

Rudo’s dream of developing games began at primary school, and he’s amazed that his dream is now becoming a reality. The young computer geek explained, “This 3D video game development has involved a range of skills: computer programming, 3D graphics designing, some mathematics and, above all, passion! I am still working on it. I want to add some more features so that it gives a more interesting game experience to all users.”

He also revealed that he will soon be working with some other students from other colleges in Blantyre, to develop a new 3D car racing video game that will capture Blantyre city as a racing ground. Imagine, globally, those who’ve never visited Malawi will be able to drive around it in a virtual game.

The John Paul II Leadership and IT Institute is a three storey, 15-classroom, purpose-built facility with capacity for 400 networked computers. The bricks and building were made by the Beeehive Centre for Social Enterprise, the not-for-profit parent of JPII LITI.